by Bruce Whitehill
Carroms is a classic “Skill and Action” game that has been with us for over a century. Carrom boards—large, wood boards, often with corner pockets—were to children in the early 1900s what Nok-Hockey was to the teenagers of the 1950s. (The Carrom Company now sells Nok-Hockey as well.) 
A variety of games—sometimes dozens of them—could be played on these approximately 28 1/2” square boards. Carroms was one of them. The boxed games often came with cue sticks, wooden rings, wood disks, and other pieces that were usually finger-flicked across the gameboard. The tabletop boards have been produced since 1889 by the Carrom Co. and Carrom-Archarena, among others; the Owl Game board, by Edw. Mikkelsen, from 1902 or slightly earlier, offered 100 games.
Owl Game Board, Chicago; for Carrom games and many others; with corner pockets
The Carrom-Archarena 100-game board had 140 pieces of equipment, including a revolving stand and a “four-surface” gameboard (a smaller board fit inside the larger one) on which you could play such standards as backgammon, checkers, crokinole, and twelve men Morris.
Three employees from Carrom Industries broke away and formed the Merdel Company in the 1960s, spelling their similar products “caroms,” with only one ”r” in the name; lawsuits followed. And so did some buyouts—until 1972 when a then-defunct Carrom Games Division was bought out by Merdel, allowing the company to use the two “r”s to sell their Carrom games. In spite of the switcheroos, the carrom boards of today are basically still being made by the original company. The two-sided 100+ game board retails for about $40 — up slightly from the $3.95-$4.75 (“prepaid east of Omaha”) of a century ago. And you’re too late to get the revolving stand for free, as that offer expired after a special 1903 promotion.
The sister game of CARROMS is CROKINOLE.
For more on carroms, click on these articles by Brian Lonsway:
Brian Lonsway and his Carrom boards; (sadly, Brian died much too young in 2001)
The American Carrom Gameboard – Something for Everyone; and
Carrom Games.
Hi-Bol, 1930s or '40s, Carrom, Luddington, Mich.; "ski-ball"
Kik-It; Carrom Co.
For a look at other old carrom boards, click to get to the Carrom Company’s Vintage Game Museum page.
For instructions on how to play carroms, you can download the 32-page pdf. file on the Carrom Co. website. Click on carrom rules to get from here to there.
For a history of the Carrom Company, go to our Carrom Company page (under construction) or visit the Carrom Company website.
Carrom board with The Pawn Shop and Prisoners Goal games, among others
[...] carrom nok hockey game thebiggamehunter.com [...]